Steve Geraci is the next president of the Student Government Association, and there's nothing I can do about it. I don't know if I would have voted for Geraci. In fact, I probably wouldn't have voted at all.
Why? Well, what separates the SGA positions from the school board, the Indiana Senate and any other elected official? Power. The ability to change things directly. This doesn't mean asking people nicely, this means being able to do something independently for the benefit of the constituency
In order for an election to have meaning, there must be power given to the elected person or persons, and SGA has no visible power.
If they do have some power, they need to learn how to use it, because they aren't using it now. How many of Team Tietz's goals have they accomplished this year? I'm pretty sure that they were petitioning for a new Student Center since 1943.
I don't vote in meaningless elections, and SGA elections are about as meaningless as they come. Even the dog catcher has more political power.
"Team Us," which most certainly doesn't include me, has a number of issues on that platform, several of which are totally ridiculous They want to change one of the biggest moneymakers for Parking Services by... talking to them. That's the equivalent of Bush asking the Middle East to just "forget the whole Israel thing."
Some of their ideas are intriguing, but most of their strategy for implementing these ideas is by applying pressure. Of course, in order to properly apply pressure, you need to have some clout. And this is where the problem comes in.
Without any power to support them, their positions are quite frankly worthless. Which makes me wonder why they get free tuition and all that money to spend.
I have seen student government in action. It was perfectly fine in high school when their main duty is to organize and decorate dances, but in college when these events are organized by other organizations, their role is unclear.
Why do we have specific positions designed to make recommendations? Couldn't focus groups or better communication with students fulfill the same function without the extra expediture?
So I propose that someone run in the next SGA election, preferably unopposed, whose platform would be one goal: to completly and totally deconstruct the Student Government Association in all of its forms. No more Student Senate, no meaningless titles and powerless positions.
It would save the university money, money that can be redirected to, say, puting an ATM in the Atrium, improving student safety or even better toilet paper for the residence halls. Then some real good can come to the students. But instead, we will have a red election for a meaningless position that, in the end, affects no one outside of those appointed to the powerless postions.
And in the end, isn't that what government is all about?
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